EFF Sues Barney The Dinosaur

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has sued the Lyons Partnership, the owners of the "Barney The Dinosaur" children's character, in an effort to make the group stop harassing a parody site.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has sued the Lyons Partnership, the owners of the "Barney The Dinosaur" children's character, in an effort to make the group stop harassing a parody site.

According to a suit filed in the Southern District of New York on August 23, the EFF has attempted to ask the court to stop Lyons from harassing Stuart Frankel, who had formed a parody site to poke fun at the dinosaur character. Frankle is asking for court costs, plus a declaration by the court that his Web site is protected by the First Amendment's right to free speech.

"The misuse of intimidating cease-and-desist letters for censorship is a growing problem online," said EFF staff attorney Corynne McSherry in a statement. "We hope this lawsuit sends a message to Barney's owners and other corporations to think twice before sending baseless threat letters."

According to the suit, by 1998 Lyons had brought more than 77 lawsuits in 20 states in an attempt to defend its trademark. U.S. trademark law essentially requires possible infringements be challenged, lest they lose their potency.

According to the parody web site, Barney was characterized as "the Enemy". "The Enemy drains the life forces from the unwary, turning them into lifeless husks. The Enemy is concerned with selling itself. It has turned PBS into a merchandise mart, and clearly insinuated its cheesy products into the most treacly web sites..."

Lyons Partnership and its legal counsel also sent a notice of possible copyright infiringement to the EFF in 2001, based upon a parody of Barney which appeared on the EFF website.

"I explained to you that parody was protected expression under the First Amendment and a recognized exception to both copyright and rtrademark law," Cindy Cohn, the legal director for the EFF, wrote to Matthew Carlin, a lawyer of the firm Gibney, Anthony and Flaherty LLP, which represented Lyons, in 2002. "I also pointed out that making baseless threats was a breach of your ethical duties as a licensed attorney of the State of New York. I advised you to immediately cease making those threats. You failed to respond to my letter."